Could NVIDIA be preparing its own-branded 'Tegra Tab?'

In the absence of major tablet design wins for its Tegra 4 chip, it seems NVIDIA might choose to follow up the Shield gaming handheld with an own-branded Android slate. The images, which have appeared on Chinese site MyDrivers, show a concave chassis which shares some design cues with the NVIDIA Shield, with "Tegra Tab" branding. Around the back there's a camera — supposedly a 5-megapixel unit — headphone jack, microUSB and microHDMI ports Interestingly, there's what seems to be a stylus slot in the top left corner. A close-up of the top right corner reveals what could be a SIM slot or some kind of secondary button.

Based on the relative size of the ports in the image, it'd seem we're dealing with a smaller tablet — something around the 7 to 8-inch mark.

The Verge points out that NVIDIA registered the "Tegra Tab" moniker at the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office back in April, so between the name and the Shield-like design, there's a good chance we're looking at the real deal. The publication also reports that NVIDIA partner Shenzen Homecare Technology was rumored to be working on a Tegra 4 tablet with a stylus, which would fit with what we're seeing in these leaked shots.

An affordable Tegra 4 tablet might conjure memories of NVIDIA's Kai program, which aimed to bring low-cost Tegra 3 tablets to market in their droves. And Kai played no small part in the emergence of the original Nexus 7, which before it was co-opted by Google was an ASUS-branded tablet. So if these images are as legit as they seem, it'll be interesting to see how NVIDIA's tablet strategy could be adjusting to focus on first-party devices.

Because that totally isn't a photoshopped mashup of both Nexus 7s, the shield, some embellishments and a realistic shadow provided by the convenience of a white table that people in a clean-room would envy....